Phase Change Random Access Memory (PCRAM) is considered as one of the leading contenders for the next generation nonvolatile semiconductor memory technologies due to its competitive advantages of speed, power saving, capacity, reliability, process integration and low cost.
PCRAM relies primarily on phase-change materials to store information. Such information can be written via the transformation of the materials between the amorphous and crystalline states and retrieved by sensing their difference in resistivity.
Transformation mechanisms involve the melting and quenching of the materials to the amorphous state and the heating of the materials at lower temperatures to the crystalline state.